Trump Brushes Off 'No Kings' Protests

President Trump on Sunday shrugged off the nationwide "No Kings" protests, calling them a "joke" and denying that his leadership has taken on a monarchical tone, reports the Hill. "I'm not a king," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida. "I work my a-- off to make our country great. That's all it is. I'm not a king at all." No Kings is a network of progressive groups that oppose the Trump agenda, per NPR.

The Saturday demonstrations took place in all 50 states, with roughly 2,600 events in cities such as Washington, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Trump, however, downplayed the turnout and questioned the authenticity of the protests. "I looked at the people—they're not representative of this country. And I looked at all the brand new signs. … I guess it was paid for by [George] Soros and other radical left lunatics," he said. "It looks like it was. We're checking it out."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, called the demonstrations evidence of "a rise of Marxism in the Democratic Party," per Politico. The outlet notes that Saturday's protests were the third "mass mobilization" against Trump's policies in his second term. (Trump also trolled protesters with a fake video of him flying a "King Trump" jet over them.)